Net Worth Update November 2014

I posted my our net worth for the first time a month ago. I was shocked by the amount of interest that people have in this information. I think I understand though. Net worth is a big secret and I think that people wonder how they stack up to others. We can see the statistics that are released and try to peg ourselves against the various statistical means and medians for age groups or income ranges but it does not feel relatable.

I have decided to do my best to track our net worth monthly. When I sit down to calculate our monthly spending, I have always calculated a ballpark figure but never tracked it so closely.

While the family slept this morning, I downloaded all our account information and added it up. SHOCK and AWE! Our net worth actually went up in October. I was surprised because I know that some of our holdings are down from where they were last month. After going through the numbers a few times, I realized that one of us got our employer match so that is the main reason for the increase. It was a nice surprise.

I don’t really lose any sleep over our net worth. Even when the market is in free fall, I don’t sweat it. I spend more time tearing my hair out over our monthly spending. I think I need to start posting that as well because that is the area we really need to work on and a major source of stress for me.

Updated net worth as of November 2, 2014.

Some notes:

This does not include my pension. I don’t include it because I do not have access to that money and I am not counting on it for another 20+ years. It is my hedge against inflation.

Like this:

Related

27 Comments

Net worth updates are definately popular. People tend to talk more about how much they make than how much they are worth. It’s not often we get to see someone elses net worth (unless you read pf blogs). I track ours quarterly to make sure we are on the right track.Tre recently posted…Weekly Update #17

Actually it is an investment account and it is mostly invested in the stock market. A small amount is in money market fund to cover short term emergencies. And shameful confession – the amount is a bit random – it would cover approx 3 months of minimum expenses if we both lost our jobs. As it grows, i will probably direct some of it to our retirement accounts. Poor planning.

I think because so many people either portray they have more than they do if they don’t have enough or less if they actually have money that readers gravitate towards “real” information. I’m skeptical about sharing though – I’m afraid it would bring out the scammers.

I will say when my husband was laid off in 2003 I cut every unnecessary expense and became very frugal. After he found a new job we rolled over his 401(k) with the help of a financial planner. He also helped us select our current 401(k) investments and encouraged us to invest in Roths. Since the stock market downturn I haven’t paid too much attention to our portfolio. My husband gave me an update the other day – I was pleasantly surprised. The bottom line cut unnecessary spending, get good financial advice, make a plan and stick to it. Even with stock market downturns if you are diligent everything should work out in the long run.

I was hesitant to share too and hope to stay anonymous and reveal things in a way that is not easily traceable. Fingers crossed.
Sounds like things are going well for you and that the layoff was a good thing in the end. Appreciate you sharing your story.

Thanks Jonny. Re Goals: that is a great question. I hope to work that out over the next 12 months or so (if full view of an audience LOL) Goals are missing from the equation. Near term is to reach $700K – we did in the summer but want to sustain it.

Good job! Net worth is a long term measurement and I usually check it annually. I do not include my personal residence because it distorts the measurement. I have to live somewhere and the value of my home does not really matter. A different perspective!krantcents recently posted…Why I Do Not Carry Cash?

Agree that it is probably OK to just track once or twice a year in normal circumstances but since there is so much interest – figured I would try to update regularly for viewing pleasure with the side benefit of keeping me focused on it. I have had other comments about including the residence and I can see both arguments. I include because it is part of our retirement plan.

Question born out of ignorance: will you sell your house in retirement? Or rent it out? Or how do you use it in retirement? It doesn’t matter to me if you keep it in there or not (it didn’t even cross my mind till I saw this comment,) just interested in how people use their homes to garner income post-retirement!

No it is a good question. The plan right now is to sell and significantly downsize or rent and add the proceeds to retirement funds. I don’t have high hopes for the real estate market so I think we will need to keep our eye on this one while trying to balance the needs of our family.

Congrats on your October results. $11K is no small change and it’s always nice to get surprises like that from an employer match. At this rate you’ll be FI in no time. 🙂 I only managed to increase my net worth by $200 in October. The market was kind of moving against me. But I hope to do better next month.Liquid recently posted…Halloween Economics

The match was the only thing that saved us – otherwise we would have been down. Lucky time to match because I think they added it at when the share price was down and it has recovered so that probably helped too. I hope I am FI soon!

I love the name of your E-fund aka Serenity Fund! Our net worth also was well up when I ran the numbers yesterday for October so you can bet I was pretty pleased with that. It’s definitely normal that people would be curious about others net worth. Congrats on being in an overall very healthy financial position May!

Wow!! Great job!! Your retirement savings is very impressive. I can’t wait until the day we have hundreds of thousands of dollar saved away! Our net worth is pretty low right now, but we did surpass our income goals for the month of October which makes me happy. Thanks for the great post!! Very encouraging!Sarah recently posted…October income